Her late husband's dream car will be part of Winter Park parade

WINTER PARK -- The souped-up, apple-green 1938 Dodge was supposed to be Steve Sciortino's surprise to his wife for their 25th anniversary.

He never got it done. First, their anniversary passed in March 2006, and then Sciortino was crippled by colon cancer.

Still, the Winter Park police detective was determined to restore the car, which he had bought on eBay and stripped down to its frame. He knew it would be the ultimate gift for a woman who loved antiques she could use, such as dishes or gardening tools.

Sciortino, 50, died on Memorial Day weekend. He had heard the car run but never showed it to his wife.

Now, a Winter Park car shop has finished what he started. Today, after an estimated $100,000 worth of restoration work by the auto shop, Susan Sciortino will ride in the car for the first time during Winter Park's Christmas Parade, in which her husband marched for several years in the Honor Guard. The car needs more work, but it will be ready to ride.

"When we get through waxing this thing, it's going to be a diamond for this parade," said Rick Vimmerstedt, the owner of Southeast Performance, which specializes in fixing old hot rods. "This was a mission for us."

In early May, Vimmerstedt, who used to talk cars with Sciortino, learned the detective was seriously ill and agreed to take over the work. It took a day and a half to secretly retrieve the car and all the pieces from a shop in Apopka, where Sciortino had had it painted.

Sciortino's best friend solicited donations from the community -- about $10,000 -- and Vimmerstedt and his mechanic closed the shop to other business for the next two weeks. They worked around the clock to get it ready to drive by Memorial Day, when they hoped to give him a ride.

"We had parts laying everywhere," said Arlynn Nofziger, Vimmerstedt's chief engineer, fabricator and mechanic. "We had a body that we had to build a car underneath."

Several times, Sciortino visited in his wheelchair to watch Nofziger work on the car. The Wednesday before Memorial Day, he heard the motor run for the first time.

"That was a thrill for everyone," Nofziger said.

Sciortino died at home that Saturday.

Since then, Nofziger has continued working on the car, bit by bit. He rebuilt the front suspension and the brakes and installed a high-performance ignition system.

He used parts from Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, even a Hyundai Sonata. He found pedals and chassis parts at a salvage yard two hours away that specializes in American classic cars. He fabricated bumpers and brackets on machinery at his shop.

"This is what I love to do," Nofziger said. "I have a really fun job. Not everybody gets to go to work and have fun like I do."

Today, Sciortino's brother-in-law, Winter Park police Officer Steve McDaniel, will drive the car in the parade, with Susan Sciortino in the passenger seat. Someday, she vows to use the car for trips to the grocery store and other errands, as she knows her husband wanted.

"I miss him, and it stinks," Susan Sciortino said, but "we will move on, as he wanted."